Colchester resident Emily E. Hein recently returned from a one-year deployment to Afghanistan. Hein is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

In the service: Hein, 30, followed her brother into the Army. For the first five years of her enlistment, she was a public affairs specialist for Connecticut. Then she enrolled in the ROTC program at the University of Connecticut. In 2011, she was assigned to the 1048th Transportation Company as a platoon leader. “Prior to our deployment to Afghanistan, we were activated twice to support our state mission during Hurricane Irene and the snowstorm in October 2011,” she said. She spent the next year preparing to be a convoy commander in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The unit spent nine months bringing supplies and logistical support to remote U.S. bases in the southeastern provinces of Afghanistan. The unit worked with active-duty National Guard members from around the United States, and with international armed forces. “We were the best at what we did, and all of the training to prepare for the deployment paid off, because our unit left and returned with everyone we came with,” she said. As the only female officer and convoy commander in her company, Hein found herself on the road more often than not and facing unique challenges. “The biggest challenge, and the one I was determined not to come up short with, was bringing all of my soldiers home,” she said. “I had about 60 troops to keep safe and I wound up bringing 60 home. This was by far my biggest accomplishment while deployed and I couldn’t have done it without the help from my noncommissioned officers.”

Life on the home front: Hein is still a member of the Connecticut National Guard, and hopes to make a career of it. “My family is a huge supporter of the military, and especially the Connecticut National Guard,” she said. She has a younger sister and older brother who are also serving, and her sister is deployed to Kuwait. Hein said she loves anything that involves a physical challenge, and will run the Marine Corps marathon at the end of October.

Quotable: “One of the greatest experiences I had was helping the USO from Kandahar Air Field deliver Christmas gifts the day before Christmas Eve. We went to some of the more remote bases on our route and made Christmas happen. There was one base that had already received their last shipment of mail before the holiday, and half the soldiers hadn’t received anything, so it made our role as ‘Santa’ all the more important and rewarding."